🔗 Gov. pledges $13M for Adirondack rail trail — adirondackexplorer.org // James Odato

The bulk of the newly announced $13.1 million will pay for construction of the final leg of the trail. About $3 million will help support the Saranac Depot project and $4 million in improvements to the sections already opened. The whole trail is expected to cost $38 million. […]

The governor has also committed $300,000 for Lake Placid to help pay for rail trailhead parking, restrooms and a bike maintenance station.

So glad to see help come from NYS to improve and finish this 🔥 project in my backyard.

Cute! 🔋🤳

Collaborative playlists in Apple Music are here. We’ve been waiting almost 10 years (a full quarter of the Mac’s life) for this, but I’m just glad it’s finally available. This was a fun intro video by the Apple Music Radio team.

Well hot damn, the trailer for Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender actually looks quite good and (🤞) faithful to the animated series.

🔗 Barbie Oscar Nominations — kottke.org // Jason Kottke

Ryan Gosling getting an Oscar nom for Barbie while Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were snubbed… well, it looks like the plot of Barbie II is all set then.

I haven’t seen the movie, but this feels both wrong and totally predictable. 🤦‍♂️

🔗 Macintosh 40th anniversary: Watch live as team members convene — 9to5mac.com // Ben Lovejoy

Macintosh 40th anniversary celebrations continue tomorrow with a live event bringing together many key members of the original project team.

This oughta be great! Can’t wait to watch.

🔗 Apple Maps errors show small businesses as closed down — 9to5mac.com // Ben Lovejoy

Apple Maps errors have reportedly been costing small businesses thousands of dollars, by incorrectly showing them as permanently closed.

The restaurant said the mistake cost them around AU$12,000 (almost US$8,000).

A stark reminder that our reality is already augmented by the apps we use. If Maps says it’s closed, the reality almost doesn’t matter. You’re probably not going to check.

🔗 Macintosh 40th anniversary: Remembering my own love affair with the original Mac — 9to5mac.com // Ben Lovejoy

It smiled at you as it started-up. You didn’t have directory listings, you had images of folders. You didn’t type the name of an application or file to open it, you used this strange new thing called a mouse to double-click it. When you made a word bold, it appeared in bold on the screen. You had different typefaces! It could talk to you! […]

I immediately knew this was what computers were supposed to be like. I wanted one.

Oh the delight in going from command line to GUI!

🔗 Apple Music will now pay 10% higher royalties to artists for Spatial Audio music - 9to5Mac // Benjamin Mayo

Apple will pay up to 10% more per play in royalties for tracks where a spatial version is available. This is starting with January’s payouts.

Crucially, Apple Music users do not necessarily have to listen in Spatial Audio for the artist to be rewarded with the bonus payout.

Good. To shepard someone toward what you want them to do, you must reward them. Behavioral psychology at its most basic!

▶️ Peek Into the Emmys Night Afterparty with Apple TV+

You’re invited to the Emmys afterparty with the stars of Apple TV+

Can you say “star power”?

🔗 Introducing More Birchtree // Matt Birchler

More Birchtree is a way to get more Birchtree writing, ad-free browsing, and the fuzzy feeling of supporting indie writing. Member posts will be more personal pieces, as well as more raw feelings about the tech news of the day before I’m ready to share with a wider audience. I’ll also have little sections shouting out other creators I love, apps I’m loving, and more.

Congrats to @matt@isfeeling.social on launching More Birchtree! His is one of my favorite blogs on the web, and I’m excited for, well, more!

🆕📝 Crashing Clockwise #537: ‘All I Found Were Three Apple TV Remotes’

This week, “we” contemplate *Clockwise* topics such as App Store drama, Apple Watch drama, Vision Pro excitement, physical media collection tendencies, snow as a concept, and iPad usage.

🆕📝 7 Things This Week [#128]

▶️, 🍿, 🫨, 🧑‍🍳, 🪟, 🔍, and 🍎. Plus 5️⃣2️⃣💿, and 🐍📦.

🔗 It’s time for a nationwide ban of right-on-red turns // David Zipper

The good news is that U.S. cities are starting to recognize these downsides, which are particularly troubling at a time when pedestrian and cyclist deaths have hit their highest levels in 40 years. Several local governments have recently adopted no-turn-on-red policies, and others are considering doing the same. This trend should be encouraged. Right-on-red is an ill-conceived traffic rule that needs to die.

The uncertainty and pressure of turning right on red sucks. Selfishly, I just hate getting honks for not turning.

T’was a bit brisk on my run this morning. 🥶 But loving the winter weather wonderland. 📷

I’ll take your papercut and raise you one cardboard cut…under the fingernail. 😖

🆕📝 Overcast’s Breakout “New” Feature Is Play With a Purpose

I bet you weren’t expecting to find a game in your watch’s podcast app. (Now that’s a sentence that proves we’re truly living in the future!)

Vision Pro pre-order
Couch delivery
Car lease negotiations and travel
Rock climbing
More travel
Prep for early morning ski before work
Been a big day.

Just thinking about how they’re rendering that interior image at all the correct angles and projecting it out to look natural no matter how you look at it is mind-boggling.

First new look at EyeSight for Vision Pro since June 2023?

From Apple's Vision Pro guided tour video.

https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/guided-tour/

Welp, Apple squandered another opportunity to introduce redone Magic Keyboards and Trackpads with USB-C (and multi-device pairing?) in the correct color and size. 😞

Success! 😁🥽

🔗 Artifact’s killer feature was rewriting bad headlines — sixcolors.com // Jason Snell

Back in the day, when I learned how to write headlines (for newspapers!), the goal was to give the reader enough information to decide if they wanted to read that article. […]

But in the era of the web and news aggregators, headlines that give away pertinent information have become a lost art. Whole generations of editors have been trained to write coy headlines that will earn a click, even if the people who are clicking will be immediately disappointed by the truth of the story.

⛷️ Waking up early, the chill, and effort to skin up to the top is easily worth it for the magical sunrise ski down on fresh runs. 📷

🔗 The one feature that would make an OLED iPad Pro worth it for me – sixcolors.com // Jason Snell

There are some things I just can’t do on my iPad Pro because of limitations in iPad software. Adding optional support for [macOS] would solve that problem in one swift stroke.

I’m not saying it will happen. I’m not saying even that it might happen. I’m just saying that among all the things that are even technically feasible, it’s the single feature that I can think of that would make the iPad Pro immediately worth whatever its much higher price tag might be.

🔗 Be loud about the things you love — robinrendle.com // Robin Rendle

But there is only one way to love something; earnestly, without forgiveness or apology. So be loud about the things you love!